The Angel's Gift
by Nyaro
Summary: Gabriel reflects on the death of Anna and learns to be at peace with himself with a little help from the gypsy princess herself.


**AN:** I wrote this right after watching the movie a few times, but never posted it. It occurred to me that maybe the whole adventure was meant to teach Gabriel something about life and death, so here's my take on the ending scene. Feel free to review with any comments or suggestions. I will take constructive criticism like a man. XD

**Disclaimer:** Don't own it, never will.

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"Dracula, his children and his Brides are dead."

The crowd of townspeople, gathered in the square around the well on which I stood, muttered in confusion and mistrust. I couldn't blame them. They had been under the shadow of the four vampires all of their lives, and the lives of their grandfathers and great grandfathers. Believing that their age-old enemy was dead would be hard, after so many false wins and after so long battling him and his Brides.

"Where is Princess Anna?" One woman asked.

"Yes, yes! Where is the Princess?" Another called.

"She is dead." The words were like hot oil in my mouth, burning my throat and tongue.

There were gasps of disbelief, and anger from the crowd. I knew I would have to explain my words now, or else be overwhelmed by an angry mob. A death I deserved.

"She died fighting Dracula, and bought me time to slay him!" I shouted over their protests. A lie, but they did not need to know the truth. "She died after Dracula did." I reassured the crowd. "She and her family are no longer trapped in Purgatory." My voice broke here, but the crowd did not notice. Sad faces stared back at me, and then, sensing I had nothing else to say to them, they broke off into their own little groups to go home and to mourn their beloved Princess.

My beloved Princess.

I was left alone with Carl and an old woman who had not followed the crowd as they left.

"I was the Princess's nurse." The old woman said, smiling sadly as she explained her presence. "I gather you have not dealt with the Princess's body yet?"

I shook my head, a sudden surge of grief taking my speech from me.

"I shall prepare her for her ceremony then, if you would like."

I nodded wordlessly, shooting the old woman a look of gratitude.

**-**

The old woman, Elli, did a good job dressing Anna in a black robe that looked strange on a woman who I'd seen in a dress only once, and that time a forced occasion at that. However she looked serenely beautiful, as beautiful as she had always been throughout our adventures together, even if it did make her look more like some soft noble lady than a fiery gypsy princess.

That night we took the carriage and some supplies and headed for the sea. Carl and I chose a cliff that had a very nice view of the sea and began building a pyre, just as Frankenstein was building himself a raft below us, on the normal shoreline. When we were done building the pyre, I lifted Anna onto it for Carl, who began the rites. This left me some time to think.

This adventure had begun as a mere job, but had ended up so much important to me than I could have ever dreamed. I found out something about myself that I did not think I really wanted to know…and I had found someone I thought I could love. And then I had killed her. Self-loathing and sadness filled my heart now, as it did whenever I thought of the circumstances of Anna's death. Why did it have to be me? The taunts of murderer had always gotten to me before, but now they would be doubly painful, because they would be true.

"Van Helsing…it's time." Carl said softly, his voice breaking into my thoughts. I nodded and stood beside the pyre. Carl had a torch ready and handed it to me, and when he nodded, I dropped it upon the pyre. It was hard, seeing her start to burn. I barely noticed Carl's chants and prayers.

I realized after a moment that my vision was foggy and squinted to see better. It was not fog…it was something else, coming from the pyre. And it wasn't smoke. It whispered around me, dancing and twirling, and I turned to follow it with my eyes. It briefly took the form of Anna, so transparent and misty that I could barely see the form, and then it floated towards the sky, above the setting sun, creating a light of its own.

There was Anna, a tear sliding down her cheek. My senses told me that it was a tear for my pain, and not for her death. She smiled then, and I knew, somehow, that she had never blamed me for her death, nor would she. Though that would never make me feel any better about killing her, a slight weight seemed to lift itself off of my heart. And then two men, one I knew to be her brother and the other I guessed to be her father joined her, and they were happy too…and free. Suddenly I remembered something she had said to me when I first met her.

'We Transylvanians always look on the brighter side of death.'

'There's a brighter side of death?'

'Of course. It's just harder to see.'

I hadn't really understood what she had meant by that, when she had said it, but I understood it now. The people I had hunted hadn't truly been people anymore. They had been trapped, caged beings who could not be free in life ever again. Their deaths had been sad, yes, but they had gone to a better place when they had died. They no longer experienced the living nightmare of being something that killed others mindlessly, or terrorized cities, or was truly evil. They were reunited with loved ones, freed of their terrible burdens, and finally able to be at peace.

I would never truly be able to get the burden of killing others, no matter how evil, off of my chest, but now that I had seen 'the brighter side of death' myself, through Anna, I felt a sense of peace that I hadn't felt in awhile. Anna had forgiven me, and the people I killed were saved from becoming as truly evil as Dracula had become.

So I smiled a little, the first true smile I'd had in days, and I knew, that no matter what happened in the future, somehow things would end up okay.

**Fin**


End file.
